A User Element (UEL) Based Process Model for Prediction of Carbon-Carbon Dimensional Changes During Manufacturing

The process of manufacturing structural carbon-carbon composites is one fraught with variability. Many of the standard practices employed by fabricators have, in some way, been derived from both experience and tribal knowledge, with little consideration for the underlying physics. While this has been sufficient for the manufacture of prototype hardware, there exists a need for a better understanding of how carbon-carbon behaves during processing as manufacturing shops transition to higher rate, production-focused facilities. In a production environment, process optimization is critical to reducing fabrication times and minimizing scrap rates; this type of optimization can be achieved through execution of physics-based models of the manufacturing process. In the effort proposed herein, Materials Research & Design will work with a team to develop, demonstrate, and validate a processing model designed to predict the physical and mechanical properties of structural carbon-carbon materials and components. Specifically, this model will take the form of a custom user element (UEL) capable of interfacing with the commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) finite element code, Abaqus. The Phase I effort will use measured in-process data to build the physics-based UEL which aims to predict residual stress, shape change, and material properties of complex carbon-carbon geometries.